Fenger students take concerns to City Hall

Kermilia Wellington, a senior at Fenger High School, wants to go to Southern Illinois University next year, but she doesn't have access to a computer to fill out the online application.

"It's too late to apply to most schools. If I can't do it in time, I'm going to the Navy," said Wellington, 18, whose neighborhood library in the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex has been closed since it flooded in March. The closest library is now two bus rides away, she said.

Wellington was among 20 Fenger students who showed up at Mayor Daley's office Wednesday to protest the lack of a neighborhood library and school.

Daley was not in his office, but a representative briefly came out to hear the students' concerns. Wellington handed him a copy of a poem that read: "We don't have a library, we don't have a school, so Mayor Daley, what do you want us to do? We don't want to rob, we don't want to steal, and we are tired of seeing teens get killed."

Students who live in Altgeld have been assigned to Fenger since 2006, when their neighborhood high school was turned into a selective-enrollment military academy. There have been long-running tensions between students who live near Fenger and those who are bused from Altgeld. That feud contributed to the beating death of student Derrion Albert in September.

Several Altgeld parents and students said they still want a neighborhood school. Chicago Public Schools said 10 students have accepted an offer to transfer to Carver Military, and the district will give Altgeld students priority when a charter high school near the housing complex opens next school year.